The Am Law Daily reported on Pistorius's plight in April, when a pro bono team led by Jeffrey Kessler, the cochair of the global and sports litigations departments at Dewey & LeBoeuf, appeared before the CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland, to appeal the IAAF's January 14 decision banning Pistorius from IAAF-sanctioned events like the Olympics.

Since taking on the matter for Pistorius in February, the firm says it has billed more than $1 million worth of hours on the case. "We couldn't be happier with the results," says Kessler by phone from San Francisco. "We won on all three grounds--the science, the legal standing, and the facts."

Represented by Mark Gay and Huw Roberts of DLA Piper in London, the IAAF claimed that Pistorius's prosthesis--the 21-year-old runs with the aid of a device called the Cheetah Flex Foot--gave him an unfair advantage over his competitors.

"The IAAF . . . decision is revoked with immediate effect," wrote the arbitrators in an 18-page opinion. But the panel also said that "this ruling has no application to the eligibility of any other amputee athletes . . . and it is the IAAF's responsibility to review the circumstances on a case-to-case basis."

Yet Kessler sees more wide-ranging implications in the Pistorius decision. "It's big not only for Oscar but the disabled athlete in general, who should be able to compete like anybody else," he says. "I view it as part of the overall movement to recognize that the disabled are not a segment of society to be shunted aside but embraced within the general population."

The CAS ruling is final and the IAAF has already announced Pistorius's newfound eligibility. "The IAAF accepts the decision of CAS and Oscar will be welcomed wherever he competes this summer," said IAAF president Lamine Diack in a statement. "He is an inspirational man and we look forward to admiring his achievements in the future."